Home office in talks to move asylum seekers from hotels to empty tower blocks

The Home Office is in talks with more than 100 councils about moving asylum seekers from hotels into empty tower blocks and old student accommodation. 

A minister has revealed the government is hoping to use break clauses for major asylum accommodation contracts, coming up next year, as an opportunity to trial new approaches.

It could mean people awaiting a decision on their asylum claim would no longer be housed in hotels – which is costly for the taxpayer – and would instead be moved into buildings turned into temporary accommodation.

These properties could then become temporary accommodation for the homeless or provide other community services later down the line, Home Office ministerDame Angela Eagle said. 

Speaking to MPs in the Home Affairs Committee, the minister said the government was discussing proposals with local authorities to investigate “medium sized” accommodation options.

These could replace the current use of hotels but operate on a smaller and more localised scale than disused military bases.

“The idea with medium sized is things like old voided tower blocks or old teacher training colleges or old student accommodation that isn’t being used where you could have numbers of rooms that are more than you would get with dispersed accommodation,” she said.

“And the idea is you would move from hotels for that kind of thing rather than old military bases or Pontins holiday parks.”

The government has currently had 198 proposals for using such buildings to house asylum seekers, from local authorities, and are considering what would be practical.

The minister said that the government was looking to be “more cooperative” with councils and considering whether these buildings – if developed – could have multiple uses.

“My instinct is trying to be much more cooperative with local authorities, trying to have a quid pro-Quo,” she said.

“Maybe some of the things that we develop will go to supporting the temporary homeless people from the area in exchange for having some of the things we develop being available for our asylum seekers as well.”

“We have 198 expressions of interest from local authorities, which we are just plowing through at the moment to see what they’re offering,” she went on.

She said the government is “looking closely to see via the pilots what we might be able to do given there are opportunities with the break clause which represent for us to evolve away from the system we’re in at the moment”.

It comes as findings from the National Audit Office revealed the cost of asylum accommodation is expected to be more than three times higher than previously estimated at £15.3 billion over 10 years.

Hotel accommodation accounted for 76 per cent of the annual cost of contracts – £1.3 billion of an estimated £1.7 billion in 2024-25.

Home Office second permanent secretary Simon Ridley told MPs the department has been able to reduce the cost of the asylum system over the last year “quite considerably”, including bringing the cost per person per night, down.

He said there is a saving of around £500 million estimated for this financial year.